Tag: debconf11

Even though some three months have passed since DebConf11 has successfully ended, I still wanted to give you just a glimpse on how some parts were played through the eyes of a lunatic (read: organizer). Of course, blog post can’t come close near of explaining anything but at least it should give some insight and hopefully some pointers to the future DebConf organizers.

If you don’t feel like reading this much text you can listen to last episode of “This Week In Debian” podcast and after it just head to “Beginning of the end” part.

DebConf11

First of all I’d like to apologize if I offended or hurt anyone in this whole process as it wasn’t my intention and during DebConf organization this is nothing irregular, for you to get hurt or you hurting somebody else. One thing that got stuck with me this whole time is when Martín Ferrari approached me after I did bid proposal of Bosnia/Herzegovina for DebConf11 back on DebConf9 and told me “you have no idea what you just got yourself into” I played cool and said something along the line “of coure I do” and boy did I lie.

During DebConf organization you’re bound to make some of your decisions instantaneously in which you’ll lose something, the most you can do is assess what’s the thing you can “cut the cord” on, even though if that “thing” or a “person” for that matter might have meant something to you. You’ll lose things, relationships, friendships, contacts … at the times sense of humor and maybe even common logic. Some of it comes back to you, some the very next day and for some it may take longer. Some of it was lost irreversibly, but even in that case it wasn’t lost and could even be traced to some other cause.

Official and Final DebConf11 dates in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina are:

DebCamp: 17 – 23 July 2011

DebConf: 24 – 30 July 2011

On behalf of whole DebConf11 team I would like to apologize to everybody who already organized and booked their vacation after initial announcement, reasons why these dates were altered can be found on debconf-team discussion on “Let’s decide DebConf11 final dates“.

These dates will be announced on Debian website as official announcement as well.

Even though we had approximate dates from very start, I would like to announce official dates when DebConf11 will be held in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

DebCamp: 25th – 31st July 2011

DebConf: 1st – 7th August 2011

We encourage you to arrive one day earlier (24th July for DebCamp, and 31st July for DebConf), final departure date will be 8th August.

Vacation, it’s in our plans to talk to travel agencies, so for those who wanted vacation after DebConf11 as its participants can enjoy shores of Bosnia, Croatia, Montenegro and Greece by discount prices.

2. DebConf11 main organizer, I really wanted to see how it’s all done on “corporate” level, for instance we’re going with hotels instead of student dorms and so on.

3. Migration to Linux infrastructure, make contacts and have some talks on this topic, because after DebConf11 in Bosnia a lot of institution will most probably open doors to open solutions such as Linux.

I went to this summit without any expectations or plans, just said I’ll play it by ear. This years UDS was held in Orlando, Florida before Orlando I was planning to stay in NYC for couple of days, therefor my whole plan was to get to NYC, then Orlando then head back home :-)

I :heart: NYC

I spent couple of days here with my cousins and friends, as always NYC never fails to surprise me, and I’ll always stop by even if it’s only for couple of days ;-) I wanted to meet up with couple of Debian people as well, but unfortunately my schedule was too tight so …

DebConf10 ended 2 weeks ago, I’m back in Bosnia and I needed some time to “recalculate” everything that happened to me in last month :-)

This was my third time in NYC, and NYC as a city never left me empty handed, in every possible sense! And am seriously considering option of moving back one day, whether to get my Masters/phD or just do work we’ll see what future holds for me :cute:

DebConf10

I was in organization team for DebConf10, but if you put me aside, what’s particularly interesting is that there was a total number of 7 Bosnians on DebConf10, two of which were government officials. I must note this wasn’t our complete team, and what’s most important of all is that they all pretty much volunteered as much as they could, of course, besides good will to help Debian, but also to at least somehow prepare themselves for organization of DebConf11.

It’s also worth noting that this was their first DebConf, and I as a leader of the team must say I’m proud on how well they performed. I’m sure by being highly active in volunteering they have learned as much as they could when it comes to “how it’s done” and were able to see good and bad sides of DebConf10 organization team.